Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Cursed
as an infant with a lack of physical and emotional gravity, Prince
Efrosin can’t keep his feet on the ground or his head out of the clouds.
Laughing his way through life, he’s never been weighed down by love and
lust.

Then
one fateful day, his tenuous tie to the earth is severed and he blows
away on the wind. He’s rescued by Dmitri, a handsome young woodsman who
suffers from a mysterious curse of his own, and the two strangers are
irresistibly drawn together. Touched by earthly yearnings for sex and
love for the first time, they dive into a delightfully sensual and
passionate affair. As the evil witch who cursed them plans her ultimate
revenge, Efrosin and Dmitri must fight to find their fairy tale ending
and live happily ever after.

Leta and I are very excited about this new series, and this first story. Hope you enjoy it!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Happy summer! I know some people really hate this season, but it's my favorite. I will be relentlessly cheerful as long as the days are long and the weather hot.

The big news in my part of town these days is the opening of Cars Land at California Adventure park in the Disneyland resort. Record number of visitors, et cetera. I did get a chance to visit, although I did not make the unfortunate choice to camp out at Disneyland the night before it opened. Because no. I don't sleep on sidewalks, even in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Anyway, with all the Disney hullabaloo up in here, I took some time this weekend to reread the novel I co-wrote with the lovely Kiernan Kelly. If you've ever visited a theme park and had the vaguest wondering of what goes on behind the scenes (and by this, of course I mean fraternizing between employees), give this book a try. Kiernan and I are each within spitting distance of Disney parks on our respective coasts, so we had a grand time writing this together.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I love quoting movies. There are often lines that completely sum up the precise emotional tone of a situation and if you say the line to someone else who has seen the movie, they know the exact feeling you’re trying to convey in a few brief words: shared cultural shorthand. Plus, it’s usually funny. In my family, many of us can have entire conversations of movie-line dialogue, from something as recent as The Avengers to classics like Casablanca. (Yvonne, I love you but he pays me.)

Every day during the past year during some course of the day at my non-writing job, my brain has recited this quote. It’s from The Mummy, the one with Brendan Fraser. As they are desperately trying to evade a monstrous evil sand cloud in a decrepit biplane, Fraser’s character quips to the pilot, “Hey, Winston, pedal faster.” To me, it was a perfect summary of the idea that disaster is imminent and the possibility of avoiding it as unlikely as a sudden burst of speed from the original Wright Brothers’ plane.

The evil monster sand cloud at my work has been the threat of the agency closing, or of it becoming so dangerous to work with the students suddenly thrown out of all the state-closed detention facilities that I left in pieces. The pedaling faster was my writing pace. Every day I tried to model Fraser’s wry humor as I thought, “Pedal faster,” my pedaling being more books written to provide more space between me and that looming disaster. But no matter how scary that sand cloud got, my brain didn’t appear to listen to my urges.

In the movie, the sand cloud overtakes them. It overtook me too. I realized I couldn’t work as a corrections officer when I only have the skills of a teacher. I feel horrible about being able to be one of the ones to walk away after the sand cloud had roughed me up and spit me out. I’ve left colleagues still pedaling away as the grit and grind scours their sanity and souls. But I’m profoundly grateful to the readers who have made it possible for me to finally achieve my life-long dream of being a full-time writer.

Now that I’m not trying to outrun an evil mummy’s sandstorm, the pages and words come faster. I’m not paralyzed by looking over my shoulder, but excited about what’s ahead of me. I was already working part time, so it’s not as if I’ve discovered that many more hours in the day. And the idea of my income being completely unpredictable should be a lot scarier than that sand cloud that I could at least see coming.

But it isn’t. I still love the pressure of deadlines, whether or not they are self imposed. But the thing I thought would overtake me did, and just like O’Connell, I managed to accept my losses and find a new way to reach my goals.

All I know is that I’m happy, I’m grateful and it’s much easier to pedal faster when there isn’t sand in your gears.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A fun time was had over on FB for Torquere's social media contest. I enjoyed sharing a few behind-the-scenes facts about Rose & Thorn, and I hope everyone who popped over to take a look and participate had fun, too.

Summer hasn't arrived here yet, and really I'm looking forward to it this year. (Possibly a first for me.) We've not had much of summer the past two years, and while I don't care for it to get over 80 degrees, it'd be nice to be warm and sweater-free for a couple of weeks. Plus, I have three summer weddings to attend this year. I wouldn't want the happy couples to get rained on.

My own summer plans are not so life-changing, but I'm still super excited about them. The hubby and I and two good friends are going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival next month! I haven't been in six years, and I can't wait! We're seeing Henry V (Who doesn't love HV, right?), a new show called Medea, Macbeth, Cinderella, and my second-favourite of the Bard's plays and arguably the slashiest of his works, Troilus & Cressida. Just ignore the title characters; they're both a bit irritating. For me, this show is all about Achilles and Patroclus. Which reminds me, I must pick up a copy of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Have you heard about this book? She won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction for it, and it's about the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. I'm so jazzed to read it! Perhaps I should take it with me to read in Ashland. Come on summer!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Summer is here and I’m excited about it. Not only because I have books being released every month of this summer starting this one. My excitement is from the upcoming visit from my family. I get to spend a little of this wonderful summer with my sister and her family. They will be staying with me for a few weeks and I’m looking forward to it. :)

My sister is an avid reader as I am and we have great discussions on books over the phone. Usually in person they get even more fun and better. It’s interesting to see how she feels about books I’ve read and she has. We have similar taste in books but what we take away from the book could be vastly different.

Also her family (hubby and son) they have a wacky sense of humor and have us laughing our butts off all the time. We try to do zingers against each other and that is always fun.

It is shaping up to be a great summer already as I look forward to them coming in July. I’m preparing for their visit cleaning and getting some fun things for us to do. I love the feel of summer.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

There's a social media contest being hosted by Torquere Press on both Facebook and Twitter. Go over and "like" their FB page and then check out "Recent Posts by Others". You'll find posts from Torquere authors there about their latest releases and other titles. (I'd give you the Twitter feed/hashtag/thingamajig, but I don't tweet so I don't know it. I'm sure any tweeters out there can figure it out.) Now here's the best part: there are free ebooks to be won! I quote the Torquere page, "Make sure you are checking the Recent Posts by Others box for posts from
your favorite authors about book giveaways. You must like and/or
comment on their post to be entered to win." It's that simple. I'll be giving away a copy of my latest, Rose & Thorn, through the contest. AND, if my own FB page, Maia Strong, Author (which I am admittedly dismal about promoting) reaches 100 likes by the end of the contest, I'll give away a second copy. The contest runs through the 15th of this month and lots of authors will be participating. Stop on by and check it out!

Monday, June 4, 2012

I don't have much to talk about right now, so I thought I would use this weeks post to share a book I just finished reading and particularly enjoyed. If you like futuristic-type books, you should give it a try.

It’s a different world. Space has been colonized, the wealthy fly to work rather than drive, and slavery is legal.

Jason’s
family has been ripped apart by tragedy. The only way he can save the
ones left is to offer himself up as a bondmate. The more he’s willing to
give, the higher the price he can command. And Jason is willing to give
a lot.

Devin is wealthy and heartbroken after the wife he adored
walked out on him. He isn’t looking for love. All he wants is a
relationship he can control. Buying a bondmate seems like the perfect
solution.

Yet when he purchases Jason’s contract, Devin gets more than he bargained for.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Six months ago, I decided to bring back
my monthly resolutions… and then promptly forgot about them. It’s been a hectic
six months, and much of that is due to the first of the three resolutions. Not
only did I get the story submitted, but it has also been accepted, edited, and
released. Huzzah!

Now that Hounded By
Love has hit the electronic shelves, I have the time to revisit some old
and new goals. The other two resolutions from January revolved around being
healthy. It took a couple of extra months, but I’m eating a lot healthier, and
not only have I not given up on the treadmill, but I’ve embraced it.

The best part of finally coming back to those goals is that
I finally lost the weight I’d gained after breaking my foot. I don’t miss the
take-out nights, and I’m starting to crave the raw vegetables I’ve been
snacking on, so the only torture is going to the grocery store twice as often.

So what’s kind of goals should I strive for over the next
few months?

I’ve agreed to pick up a dropped prompt for the GoodReads
M/M Romance group’s Love is Always Write event, so there’s goal one. With the
exception of the LiAW freebie, I won’t let myself work on anything else until I
get the untitled sequel to Man Whore finished.
I’m estimating about another 20k words to reach the end. It shouldn’t be taking
this long, and I really want this one off my plate so I can move on to the rest
of the series.

Lastly, my health goal this month will be low-impact
activities and strength training. I’ve been struggling with muscle pain, and in
order to let things heal I need to back off on the running program for a short
while. It’ll be difficult to combine finishing a book I’ve struggled with and
backing off on running, but it’s something I must do, and so I will find a way
to do it.

Who’s up for some change? What goals do you have for the next
couple of months?